When news broke on Aug. 25 that the Liberty County School System froze all in-person classes and athletics, that threw a wrench into the Bradwell Institute Tigers football season.
Their yearly game against Liberty County was cancelled along with a matchup versus West Laurens.
The Tigers had to revert to having virtual meetings between players and coaches to keep in contact during their dead period.
“We tried to get a lot of mental reps via Google Meets and go over film of the games we’ve played and practice sessions,” Tigers head coach Deshon Brock said. “We wanted to give them a visual of what’s to come.”
But now, the Tigers are back.
They returned to practice on Sept. 10, going through the GHSA acclimation period.
The Tigers are focused on getting back in shape after their two-week layoff along with adjusting to the nuances of their schemes.
“We can’t have on any pads for five days, so the main thing is to get these kids back into some type of shape and at the same time making sure we haven’t forgotten the foundational pieces that we’ve been installing since day one,” Brock said. “It’s good for them to be around each other playing the game of football again. And we want to make sure we’re being safe while we’re doing that.”
They will officially take the field again on Sept. 17 when they travel to Baxley to face Appling County.
Brock also said that they scheduled an extra game where they will travel to Tattnall County on Thursday, Oct. 7.
The Tigers are not going to use their circumstances as a crutch if they do not perform well for the remainder of the season.
“They went through this last year,” Brock said. “It can play on their mental because they could be like, ‘Here we go again.’ I told them in the team meeting that we’re not going to use this as an excuse. We’re not looking for an easy out or a reason why we can’t perform how we should. We used this as a period to refresh mentally and get some guys back healthy. We’re coming back ready to rock and roll and fully expect to win football games.”
The Tigers will be on the road on Sept. 17 to face Appling County at 7:30.